Lampworks Branches Out!

  LAMPWORKS' NEW SHOWROOM

These days, many businesses downsize.  Lampworks recently moved into a larger space to include furniture and flooring.  After all, lighting needs display space on walls and ceilings, so we have room for our new, exclusive lines at:

 The New York Design Center
200 Lexington Ave, Suite 903, NYC 10016
212.750.1500

Visit Lampworks' Website and Showroom to learn about designing everything you need.  We'll take you through the often confusing world of sustainable lighting choices, and show you how to integrate them into your designs.

 

Continuing our tradition of providing quality, custom, sustainable designs (ours or yours), so too may you customize our seating, area rugs and case goods.  Just as with our lighting, you specify the finish or materials, size and design.  Everything has a short foot print with fast lead-times.

Our furniture is made from the finest European leathers, fabrics from design sources - or COM.  Order sofas, sectionals and modulars "by the inch" and choose the filling, legs and cushions. We also offer great dining, lounge, pull-up, and accent chairs, kitchen and bar stools.

Along with our stock design and custom area rug capabilities, Lampworks is the only source for custom, outdoor area rugs!  Yes, your size, shape and design, made with custom colors.

We offer a variety of yarns and textural effects.  Poms are shipped quickly for those demanding Clients who want to make decisions now!

So, stop in when you're in the NYDC, or make an appointment at: 212.750.1500 to get a preview of our fresh, innovative styles and service.  And...remember our lighting too...

SM-01 Surface Mount

Surface Mounts in many sizes and shapes. 
Choose the finish and lamping for your requirements.

Fiberglass Mid-20th C Shade

Custom Lampshades and

Contemporary and Classic Table and Floor Lamps 

Make an appointment to learn about designing everything you need.  We'll take you through the often confusing world of sustainable lighting sources and assist you with integrating them into your designs.  Now Lampworks is your One Source for furniture and flooring as well as lighting!

Come! Sit! Stay! at the NYDC

Usually, we write about lighting, however, Lampworks recently moved into the New York Design Center at 200 Lexington Avenue, and so our mascots want you to know how excited they are to be here!   If you've shopped at Lampworks, then you've met our Standard Poodles, Yoshi and Caniche.  Caniche is the white female princess who holds court over the showroom, and Yoshi is the the male rescue with soulful eyes who greets everyone for pets.   

On our first offical day, as we approached the entrance, there was Mike, one of the building staff, raising the flags of the US, NYDC, and 1stdibs.  We stopped to salute and entered the lobby where we were greeted by Eileen and Louis who qualify visitors and messengers.  Eileen is in big trouble ever since the Poodles found out she keeps biscuits at her station.  Now they won't continue through the lobby unless they get a treat.  While we were there we also met Jordan of Apropos, with his dog.

Next, we stopped in the Cafe to pick up coffee and were pleasantly surprised to find that the Poodles were allowed to accompany me where they were offered some treats.  How is a canine to keep a good figure around here?

As we rode up to the ninth floor, the Poodles, who always watch their elevator manners, sat quietly wagging their tails offering free shoe shines.   When we arrived, we met DIFFA's mascot, Spot.  Gosh, this is an exciting start to the day - another member of the NYDC Kennel Club! 

Ready for work, Caniche and Yoshi got into position for their nap and
waited for another chance to see Eileen on their way out for a walk.  Hmmm....maybe the guys at the Cafe will spare a little cheese they've been saving for those yummy paninis?  Next time you are in the NYDC, stop into Suite 903 and have your shoes shined while you view our new lighting.  Come! Sit! Stay!

7 Weeks to a New Showroom!

WEEK FIVE:

It's time to freak out!  ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT!  Now that each of our contractors has gotten to a running start without tripping over each other, they have all promised to take us from this...

Suite 903 (October 13, 2011)

...to a finished showroom!  Although it looks like nothing is happening, the walls are being framed and almost all the piping is run for the electric wires.  Then the entire space will be painted, the floor will be installed and we'll transport our "display fixtures".  These have to be reinstalled to show off our sconces, table lamps and lampshades.

While waiting for this to happen, I took some time out with friends to attend a book signing by Ana Tzarev in her gallery on West 57th Street.  Justin Warner, Director of the gallery, whisked us away for a glass of champagne and introduced us to Ana.  Originally from Croatia, Ana specializes in scenes of nature; especially flowers and birds.  Primary colors dominate her themes and her canvasses are of a grand scale.  Ana is one of the most exuberant painters I have ever met - and so is her art!

And speak of exuberant people, in the center is our group leader, Interior Designer, Elle, of Lebeck Design Corp., and from left to right, long-time pal Sean, Courtney of B.Berger, family friend Ram, and me!

I'm cashing in all my favors and inviting everyone in town to spend the weekend packing chandeliers.  Free beer and pizza for all.  So far we have two brave participants. When I return to work on Monday, I will have photos with more progress.  I hope.

7 Weeks to a New Showroom!

WEEK TWO:
We made a lot of decisions about the electrical (whew!).  Now the work begins.  It involves a lot of chopping, drilling and concrete dust, so this part is done early mornings, evenings and weekends so as not to disturb the other showrooms.

This past Tuesday was the annual "What's New What's Next" event at the NYDC.  Since we were not officially open, but wanted to have a presence, we set up a "construction vignette" with chandeliers on ladders, a few pieces of our new leather line and a pile of lampshades peaking from a packing box.

We displayed a chair and ottoman from Leathercraft.  Their furniture is amazing.  It's all made from beautiful, top-quality European leather, eight-way hand-tied construction and is custom made in 3-4 weeks!

As you can see, the choice of style runs the gamut from Contemporary to Classic.  If you want to design your own styles or reinvent ours, be our guest!

We also showed our signature chandelier, the Dulce, which received a lot of attention.  

The best part of our lines is that they are Made in America!  So, quick lead-time for custom fabrication and a short footprint is included at no extra charge!

Now, we have to meet with the other contractors to figure out where everything else will go.  Oy!

7 Week Countdown to a New Showroom!

WEEK ONE:
Lampworks has begun the third incantation of it's professional life in NYC.  In 1996 we opened in the D&D Building, or "979 Third" to the locals.  Five years later, when we needed to expand into larger space, we moved to 58th Street in September of 2001 (good timing eh?).  At that time it would have made a good location for filming "Midnight Cowboy".  Just a seedy-looking street that leads to the upper roadway of the 59th Street Bridge, it has always been home to great restaurants like Felidia; but her jewel of a building was the exception, not the rule. 

As more and more home furnishings merchants gentrified the side streets surrounding the D&D, A&D and Fine Arts Buildings, we improved properties.  Since the values went up, property owners proceeded to raise rents.  It became a win/win for landlords and a lose/lose for tenants.

So, here we are, September, 2011 and we're doing our third build-out in 15 years!  We are moving into the NYDC, the New York Design Center, lovingly referred to as "200 Lex".

Our new space is a "usable" 1,677 square feet. As of today, it is a concrete box with 10'-8" ceilings, and two tall windows that look out onto Lexington Avenue and 32nd Street. Keep in mind that ceiling height is everything to a lighting showroom.  We have exactly seven weeks to complete a build-out, move in and open! 



Suite 903 (September 9, 2011)


The NYDC was built at the turn-of-the-century, so ceilings are composed of clay and cannot hold more than 25 pounds.  For most showrooms that's not a problem, but for Lampworks... well, we will have to install  steel extrusions called Kindorf that are literally bolted to the bottom of the I-beams by sawing away the concrete and plaster that surrounds them.  The Kindorf is electrified and the beams must be restored.  This brings our "ceiling height" down to  9'-8" - not a very comfortable height to hang large chandeliers.  We have a lot to do!

We're planning everything down to the inch, but where to display large chandeliers?  Yikes!  And - we're making room for a new category - furniture.  We'd also like to reuse as many of our existing display fixtures as possible, but don't want the space to appear crowded.  It's very tempting to put ten pounds into a five pound bag -exactly the look we want to avoid!  We'll let you know how this plays out when we get to Week Two.  Stay posted!

Cool Lighting Basics - 101

In our last Blog we talked about Sustainable lighting and bulbs (referred to as lamps) with which most of us are more familiar.  As promised, here are some additional, newer types of lamps.

Ah - the miracle lamp - Light Emitting Diode.   Better known as an LED, they've been around since 1927 (!) and were perfected in 1962 by GE.  LED's have been used for a while in aviation, and in street lights and electronics, but were not used for general lighting purposes until recently.  Although there are LED par-like flood lamps, Edison and candelabra based lamps for residential use, we have a long way to go in perfecting the color of the light,and being able to get the lumens we are all used to living by.  Most types cannot be dimmed, may fade and can change color.  Also, although manufacturers boast that LED's last for 50-80,000 hours, these lamps haven't been around long enough to know for sure!  Still, it's become the cold lighting of choice for under-counter and interior cabinet lighting because of the compact size and the small amount of electricity it requires.

AIRBUS LIT w/ LED

The once industrial Metal Halide lamp has morphed into a variety of shapes and sizes that can be for commercial and residential use.  The original 1960's technology has been around long enough for us to know that we can get from 50-80,000 hours from one lamp.  Take a walk down Fifth Avenue and get real close to the  windows that wrap around the front of Saks 5th Avenue.  James Ranson, Associate Director of Visual Lighting Design for Saks, uses Metal Halide lamps to get beautiful effects on posh merchandise that has to look its best!  The lamps are ideal for window display as they are cold like fluorescent.  This way, the small world of a shop window won't require more energy to keep it cool like traditional incandescent and halogen lamps.  Additionally, they last far longer, so they're saving money on staff time and replacement lamps.

BASEBALL FIELD LIT w/ METAL HALIDE

Less familiar to some is Cold Cathode, also known as CCFL.  These lamps are actually a cousin of Neon.  They are gas-filled tubes that can be bent into virtually any shape and size.  We find them especially suited for illuminating coves as they have less drop-off than LED's and they can be made any length, which means they are not interrupted by dark spots like fluorescents which come in standard sizes.  They are also colder than fluorescent and can be dimmed.  They also last up to 25,000 hours.

Cove Lit w/ Cold Cathode

Here's my favorite... Fiber Optics.  Fiber Optic Lighting does not use any "lamps" - except one for the source.  It is a lighting system that transports the light through glass fibers - sort of like Fios.  The series of glass fibers is protected by a flexible cable that makes it water-proof, fire-proof and may be installed where you can't use conduit because there's no electricity going through the cables!  Best of all, except for the source, there are no bulbs to change - it's totally permanent!  It gives off no heat at all.  Even fluorescents and some LED's do give off some heat albeit less than incandescent. 

 STAIRWELL LIT w/ FIBER OPTICS

So, how do we sort out all these new types of lamps that we're all debating about?  Sustainable lighting is still in its infancy so there's a lot to learn.  The truth is, even manufacturers don't have all the answers.  They come up with new products to sell but often don't offer coordinating sockets with dimmers.  There are no standards for labeling; often, they each label specs differently than another company, although they are exactly the same.  The answer is to be open to everything.  There isn't one type of lighting that can substitute for another any more.  Experiment a little and see what works for you.  Not everything is worth all the hype - but you may be pleasantly surprised!

It's not easy being Green!

Remember that song by Kermit the frog?  "It's not easy being green"  Well, many of our clients feel the same way!  We've done a lot of research to sort out the differences between so many types of lighting; searched the Internet, spoken with experts who lecture at our "Breakfast Club" meetings, and joined organizations such as the Designers Lighting Forum (DLF), NYC.  At these meetings, we meet with other lighting professionals with whom we can discuss types of lighting. 

So where does this leave us?  A bit overwhelmed by it all?  I don't blame you!  Here's the complaint we hear most often: "Our clients want to be more friendly toward the environment and save money, but none of us like the lighting effect of  Fluorescent lighting:"  I couldn't agree more.  The most important thing we've learned is that there is more to Sustainable life than Fluorescents!  Yes you heard it here!  Common' you ask, if we can put a man on the moon, why can't anyone make a CFL look like an incandescent?  For one thing, when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, it was his goal to imitate gas light, the popular mode of lighting at the time, and just like gas, incandescent has a filament that burns and glows with a warm, yellow light.  That is why they don't last as long as newer kinds of lighting.  They "burn out" quickly.

Enclosed Wall Sconce -

Great with CFL's

Drum Pendant -

Perfect for CFL's

 




In an effort to create something that is reasonably priced and lasts longer, CFL's have started to dominate the market.  However, it's never going to glow like a candle.  The bulbs, or "lamps" as they are properly referred to, are filled with a gas.  It's like trying to match the color of a your chartreuse fabric to a ready-mixed chart of paint for your walls.  You'll come really close but never quite make it!  The best we can do is choose the "color temperature". 


Incandescents glow at 2700 Kelvin and you can buy CFL's at 2700K as well, however, it's only close.  So, we recommend them for enclosed fixtures such as drum pendants, flush and semi-flush mounts, where it works especially well.  And, we've also found some CFL's that can be dimmed.  Sweet!

Candelabra Base
Xenon

My favorite alternative is "Xenon".  Yes, just like the lamps they use in the headlights of your car!  They also have a gas inside, but they also have a filament that glows.  Xenon gas is whiter than Fluorescent, they are available in Edison or candelabra bases and are really small so you can get a lot of light in a small shade or fixture.  They cost more than an incandescent, however, they last at least three times as long.  They also dim.  The reason I consider them sustainable is that they give off more light using less wattage.  For instance, the 60-watt version is perceived by the human eye like a brighter, 100-watt incandescent.  So, you'll use less electricity and buy fewer bulbs in the long run.

This tiny sconce has a
shallow shade - good
choice for a Xenon bulb.

Some of the "new" lamps we're using are actually old technology.  For instance, Cold Cathode lighting, another lamp that has gas inside, is a cousin of Neon.  Fiber Optic lighting was first developed in the 1950's.  More on those, the ever-popular LED and Metal Halide next time - there is a lot to "look at!"


For more information on green lamps and lighting, visit Lampworks' Sustainable Page.